Picks and pans of the week

Didn’t watch the Academy Awards, seeing as I haven’t broken down and bought a TV yet, but has the awards show rendered itself irrelevant? Even Sylvia Brown could have predicted that Marty Scorsese would win Best Director, and that Forrest Whitaker would finally get his due. Everyone I’ve spoken with (not a scientific survey, but still) has mentioned that the ceremony was interminably long. Does anyone really care about Best Foreign Language Origami Film Made by Amputee Orphans? C’mon, people tune in for one of 2 reasons – to watch the stars walk up the red carpet, or because they care about the big awards. Dispense with all the filler, and announce Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor/Actress, Original & Adapted Screenplay in an hour and a half, and be done with it. Relegate all the other bullshit categories to the same 30-second blurb where they announce the Scientific, Technical, Engineering, and Honorary Awards.

Craig Ferguson is my inaugural Hero of the Week (henceforth to be referred to as HotW) for saying in his almost indecipherable Scottish brogue that “comedy should have a certain amount of joy in it”. I’m as apt to make fun of people like Britney Spears and Anna Nicole Smith as anyone else, and to do so with vicious abandon, but Craig’s right. There’s no honor in having a laugh at the expense of someone who’s down or can no longer defend herself.

Greatest. Picture. Evar. The video is even better.